Theatre students wrote 'cheat.' beginning with an honest talk about dishonesty

What is cheating? Who gets hurt
when someone cheats? Does everyone
do it?

The questions are worth pondering
during a new play, “cheat.,” written and
produced by the Western students who
will perform it this month.

The group, members of an upper
division Theatre class, read David Callahan’s
2004 book “The Cheating Culture”
and spent months exploring dishonesty
in our society as they developed
“cheat.,” said Chelsea Lowrie, a Theatre
major and the play’s stage manager.

How did you write
“cheat.”?

Lowrie: “cheat.” was written by a
lighting designer, a set designer, a hair
and makeup designer, two costumers, a
stage manager, and 12 extremely talented,
versatile
actors. Despite
our traditional
titles, we
worked as an
ensemble for
the majority of
the process.

We spent
many three-hour
class
periods
discussing the
definition of
cheating and
what contexts
of cheating are
most relevant
to our audience.
A few professors stopped by to
share some of their philosophical and
business perspectives.

Then we split into groups to
research. The trick was, the groups had
to present their research in performance.
These moments eventually formed what
“cheat.” currently is.

What’s the play about?

Lowrie: Currently, “cheat.” has four
primary story arcs: the nature of cheating
in a business setting, the pressures
of cheating in sports, the progression
of romantic cheating in a steady relationship,
and how doubt can be just as
detrimental to a relationship as cheating
itself. This play is a work in progress. It’s
very possible that our final piece won’t
resemble our current “draft” at all!

Did you find the pervasiveness
of cheating a little depressing?

Lowrie: I expected to start this
process a little like a puppy-dog drooping
its tail: Cheating is so pervasive that
I expected to see a part of myself in all
of the cheating contexts we explored.
Instead, I found myself an angry outsider.
I hadn’t realized that honesty was
such an important value of mine.